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COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 



THE STORY OF SENSA 

AN INTERPRETATION OF 

THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS 



Ccv- ■ 'MABEL COLLINsY^vu.-^. 

A THREEFOLD NARRATIVE 

I. A STORY OF BLACK MAGIC IN ANCIENT 
EGYPT. 

2. THE INITIATIONS OF AN EGYPTIAN HEIRO- 

PHANT. 

3. THE TRAGEDY AND APOTHEOSIS OF THE 

HUMAN SOUL. 



NEW YORK : 

John W. Lovell, Publisher, 

1 V/est 34th Street 






Copyright, J91S, 

BY 

MABEL COOK 



0^C1.A3 6J.273 



^ 



^vTHE STORY OF SENSA 

An Interpretation of 
The Idyll of the White Lotus 

CHAPTER I. 

The story of Sensa, as told with marvel- 
lous and mystic art in The Idyll of the 
White Lotus contains within itself three 
narratives, separate yet inseparable, 
united in their very nature and essence, as 
are the three leaflets of the trefoil clover. 
They cannot be taken apart, but they can 
be looked upon separately and in each 
is contained something vital which ap- 
peals to the deepest part of the human 
nature within ourselves. No student of 
occultism who has once read this Idyll 
and penetrated within any part of its 
mystic veil, can forget it or be parted 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

from it, because it relates his own story, 
the tragedy and ultimate apotheosis of 
his own soul, and is therefore an essen- 
tial part of himself. 

I am able to write of the Idyll as a 
critic and a student, not as its author in 
any sense, because I simply placed it 
upon paper in human language, as it was 
told to me in the mystical and universal 
language, when my personality was in 
the state known to the occultists of 
Southern India as " swapna " — obscurely 
translated into English by the words 
" somnambulic clairvoyance." In 1878 I 
was deeply engrossed in literary work 
which kept me constantly at my writing 
table, and from the window of the room 
I worked in I saw Cleopatra's Needle 
brought up the river and set up upon the 
Embankment. A procession of superb 
Egyptian priests began from that time to 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

come into my room — coming up the 
staircase and entering the door — and 
stood around my table. I thought at 
first it was the appearance of astral 
forms connected with the Needle. But 
as these mysterious visits continued 
and culminated in a great effort, it is 
evident that if they were astral forms 
they were animated and directed by the 
egos to which they belonged, and were 
indeed the Kas of certain priests of an- 
cient Egypt. It is of course known as a 
fact that the religious Egyptians under- 
stood that the Ka or astral form of a 
person who had lived a spiritual life 
could be used by the ego of that person 
for great purposes if carefully preserved 
and protected. Also it has been stated 
that the Ka or astral form exists to serve 
the purpose of supplying information 
with regard to events on the physical 
3 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

plane to its ego in Devachan. This 
seems to be what took place in this case, 
and when the hour was ripe the ego 
came to the place where its work had to 
be done, and aroused the ego within my- 
self so that I stood out of myself 
to receive the message, and wrote it 
down upon the paper on my table, ar- 
resting the thinking principle of my 
brain in its action while this was ac- 
complished. Thus the story was passed 
from the higher consciousness to the 
lower, intact and perfect. The ''Ka" of 
the Ancient Egyptians is the " astral 
form " of the Theosophists, the " spook " 
of the spiritualist's seance room, the 
" ghost " of all time and all countries. It 
was regarded by the Egyptians as earth- 
bound, unenlightened, ignorant and re- 
taining the lowest of the physical de- 
sires of the man. They had an object 
4 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

in keeping it imprisoned in the tomb of 
the body, and they therefore provided it 
with amusements and pleasures there 
to prevent its roaming about and per- 
haps seeking still less desirable gratifica- 
tions. They had an elaborate ritual by 
which they kept it there instead of allow- 
ing it to become disintegrated on the 
astral plane. This was done because they 
held that the ego in its high place might 
in the future need its services upon earth, 
and come to seek it ; and they believed 
that from time to time this occurred. Of 
course the priests's knowledge of magic 
and the mysteries of the after life was 
regarded as great enough to establish and 
hold such a connection over the centur- 
ies. The shapes of priests who came into 
my room and stood around my table be- 
fore the Idyll of the White Lotus was 
written were not seen by others; it re- 
5 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

quired " waking clairvoyance " {jagrat) 
to perceive them; but still, they were 
ghosts, pure and simple, the shades of 
the dead. But, as no doubt the ego of a 
great adept undertook the task of writ- 
ing the Idyll it is more than probable that 
at the moment when the work was actu- 
ally begun, when I was summoned into 
the higher consciousness, each one of 
these ghosts was inhabited by its true 
ego, or spiritual form. 

These priests were not the priests who 
appear as characters in the book ; it is 
necessary to state this clearly to avoid 
any confusion. The priests who gave 
the story of Sensa to the world were 
representatives of the great spiritual re- 
ligion, (that " white magic " which came 
from prehistoric times,) acting once 
more in a definite manner upon man and 
aiding his evolution. 
6 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

The priests in the story represent those 
who were sorcerers, workers of " black 
magic." 

It must be remembered that magic is 
a word of dignity and spirituaHty, de- 
rived as it is, from the ancient Zend. 
It simply means the powers and prac- 
tises of the wise men, the Magi. Pro- 
fessor Walter Budge says : * " The belief 
in magic, the word being used in its best 
sense, is older in Egypt than the belief 
in God." — " Egyptian magic dates from 
the time when the pre-dynastic and pre- 
historic dwellers in Egypt believed that 
air, and the sky were peopled with count- 
less beings, visible and invisible, which 
were held to be friendly or unfriendly 
the earth, and the underworld, and the 
to man — " He points out that the magic 
known in other countries has been drawn 
* Walter Budge's " Egyptian Magic," Kegan Paul. 

7 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

from " the White Magic " and " the 
Black Magic " of ancient Egypt, and 
adds : " it is impossible to say exactly 
how much the beliefs and religious sys- 
tems of other nations were influenced by 
them, but there is no doubt that certain 
views and religious ideas of many 
heathen and Christian sects may be 
traced directly to them." 

This is the glorious side of the retro- 
spect, showing how the highest that is 
in us, and the best that we know, has its 
origin and root in the mysterious pre- 
historic past of Egypt. 

A great, dark, gloomy shape arises 
from the same ancient source and the 
light and the darkness battled ceaselessly 
then as they have done ever since, in the 
world and in every man's own nature. 

Professor Wallis Budge says : " To 
him that was versed in the lore contained 
8 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

in the books of ' the double house of life ' 
the future was as well known as the 
past and neither time nor distance could 
limit the operations of his power ; the 
mysteries of life and death were laid 
bare before him — Now if such views as 
these concerning the magician's power 
were held by the educated folk of an- 
cient Egypt there is little to wonder at 
when we find that beliefs and supersti- 
tions of the most degraded character 
flourished with rank luxuriance among 
the peasants and working classes of that 
country — To meet the religious needs 
of such pople the magician, and in later 
times the priest, found it necessary to 
provide pageants and ceremonies which 
appealed chiefly to the senses — this 
magic degenerated into sorcery, and 
demonology, and witchcraft, and those 
who dealt in it were regarded as associ- 
9 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

ates of the Devil and servants of the 
powers of darkness, and workers of the 
' black art.' " Here we have the atmos- 
phere in which the story of Sensa is set, 
we feel how true to life is the picture of 
the innocent neophyte plunged into the 
battle between the powers of good and 
evil. Subba Rao, the learned Brahmin 
Theosophist says of the Idyll : * "It 
truly depicts the Egyptian faith and the 
Egyptian priesthood, when the religion 
had already begun to lose its purity and 
degenerate into a system of Tantric wor- 
ship contaminated and defiled by black 
magic, unscrupulously used for selfish 
and immoral purposes." 

If we first of all read the Idyll in its 
artistic setting as a story of ancient 
Egypt, laid in one of its great Temples, 
(now long since a ruin, buried beneath 

♦ " Esoteric Writings " page 240, (Bombay). 
10 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

the dust of ages,) we see the young boy, 
born of the peasants, a fellah, chosen 
out of his family to enter its sacred 
hidden priestly life as a novice. He is 
innocent, untrained, simple. He is awe- 
struck at the vocation open to him, and 
at the majesty and dignity of the priests. 
To them he is simply an ignorant boy 
from the country who will have enough 
work given him to do, such as he is 
fitted for. They think nothing of him, 
and Agmabd, the high priest of the 
" dark goddess," the leader of the group 
of black magicians, does not notice how 
profound is the impression made on 
the sensitive child by his presence and 
personality. His golden beard, his ex- 
quisite robe, white, embroidered with 
gold in mystic patterns, the glamour 
which encompassed him, filled Sensa 
•with strange new emotions, inexplicable 
II 



TPIE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

and bewildering. In spite of his charm 
and gentleness the child recognized in 
him something hard and cold, something 
scarcely human. He indicates this by- 
saying that Agmabd seemed to him like 
something carved. Agmabd sees a timid 
boy, and bids him not to fear. He di- 
rects that he shall be taken into the 
school. Here where pale students study 
difficult papyri, the priest who is their 
teacher treats him with contempt. The 
new novice is only a country boy, clearly 
no scholar ; there is no time to be wasted 
on him. He directs that the child be 
taken to the gardener, who will be able 
to give him some work. He goes into 
this place of beauty, and being a seer 
and clairvoyant becomes aware of the 
presence of The Goddess — the spirit of 
true religion becomes visible to him, per- 
sonified, rising out of the sacred flower 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

of Egypt. In full waking clairvoyance 
he gazes upon her, and then tries to ap- 
proach her, but this effort is too great, 
and he faints away. 

The fact that he is a seer at once 
changes his position in the Temple. The 
black magicians determine to control 
him and use his gifts for their own ends. 
They are in great need of one with this 
gift, to act as a medium for their dark 
goddess, to enable her to communicate 
with them and with the people. Every 
effort is made to secure him for this pur- 
pose. The battle between the two 
forces of good and evil literally rage 
over him. He is of priceless value to 
Agmabd and the black magicians who 
follow and obey him. They have need 
of a medium, there is no seer or clairvoy- 
ant amongst them, and although they 
have all the learning of the ancient Egyp- 
13 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

tian, all the powers of the students of 
magic, they cannot communicate with 
their innermost guide and controller, 
the dark Queen, without the psychic gift. 
It has been lost by reason of their utter 
selfishness and degradation, so that they 
have had nothing to ofifer the people but 
inventions and deceit. They are placed 
before us in the position of the fortune- 
tellers and miracle-workers of to-day — 
when the power has left them, in order 
to keep the suffrages and the support of 
the public on whom they depend it be- 
comes necessary to invent and to lie. 
The company of the high priests are 
weary of subterfuge and exhausted in 
invention. The discovery of a natural 
clairvoyant, a born seer, in one of the 
young neophytes, is to them like the 
sight of gold in the soil to a gold-digger. 
The child must be secured, made their 
14 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

slave, trained in mediumsiiip, taught how 
to Hsten to the strange voice of the dark 
Queen, (the personification of evil and 
falsehood and selfishness,) and to give 
her messages to her servants ; taught how 
to take their requests to her and obtain 
from her the gratification of their de- 
sires. This is the vocation laid down for 
Sensa, upon which he is to enter imme- 
diately, without any delay whatever. 
They cannot afford to wait — they have 
sold their very souls to the Devil, and 
they must have payment — power and 
the gratification of desire for them- 
selves, miracles and excitement for the 
people who support them. None of 
these things can they get, because there 
is none among them with psychic power, 
none who is not bound by materialism 
in consequence of evil doing and selfish- 
ness. Therefore so soon as the gardener 
15 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

tells them that the child has seen a vis- 
ion, they claim him for their own. But 
the vision was that of Truth, of the 
personification of the Logos ; the Lily- 
Queen of Egypt's pure religion had dis- 
covered his open sight before the black 
magicians knew of it ; and his heart had 
gone out to truth and purity and love ; 
he had done obeisance to the Supreme. 
Therefore the black magicians found the 
task of subduing him to their evil pur- 
poses, and selfish will, much harder than 
they had expected it to be. They 
thought he was merely an ignorant boy 
who would be as wax in their hands ; 
whom they could use and exploit with- 
out difficulty ; but he was indeed a human 
being within whom was illumination and 
who was struggling to retain it and to 
draw nearer and nearer to the light. 
The ordeals to which he was subjected, 
i6 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

the temptations placed in his way, the 
seductions offered to him, give the set- 
ting of sombre and briUiant pictures re- 
quired for the enactment of this 
tragedy of the soul. 

That the black magicians should have 
so misjudged the neophyte is perfectly 
natural and true to life. An inability to 
recognise the higher natures is a charac- 
teristic of those who have chosen the 
path of self -aggrandisement. The 
priests who surrounded Sensa were so 
deeply plunged in the gratification of 
desire and in the blind materialism 
which results from it, that they no 
longer understood the laws of evolu- 
tion and did not realise that waking 
clairvoyance and the true Vision are only 
possible to one who has entered upon 
the upward path. Therefore they mis- 
calculated his strength, and met with a 
17 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

resistance they did not look for. They 
thought that by the mere exercise of au- 
thority over this helpless child they could 
get all that they wanted. And at first it 
seemed as if it was to be so. He was 
taken into the holy of holies in which 
dwelled the dark Power. Again he 
sees — this time to tremble with horror. 
And he refuses to obey the command of 
the dark Power ; fainting, once more, 
from exhaustion. And so passed his 
first day within the Temple. The 
priests seek for means to entice the 
soul from the body, and leave it un- 
controlled, to be used by the dark Queen 
as her medium ; the attempts in which 
the fascinations and pleasures of black 
magic on the subtle planes of experience 
are ofifered to him seems at first to be 
successful. The longing for freedom 
from his imprisonment can be gratified 
i8 



Of THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

by leaving his body ; and when the chance 
to do this comes he takes it without 
hesitation, in complete ignorance of the 
danger. But the Lotus Queen herself 
comes to his entranced body and wakens 
it and calls the soul back to take the 
command. Then Agmabd creates a per- 
sonification of pleasure, which comes to 
the boy as another child, a girl full of 
fun and play. This most difficult feat of 
the black magician brings success at 
last; Sensa follows his new playmate 
with natural delight. She leads him 
into gardens of flowers ; among children 
who are playing games ; and he becomes 
possessed by the very spirit of pleasure, 
playing eagerly with the others. This 
time Agmabd conquered; while the soul 
wandered away into the world of child- 
like delights, the entranced body was 
seized upon, used, controlled by the dark 
19 



THE STORV OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

Goddess. The soul of the neophyte saw 
itself surrounded by merry children like 
himself; the body of the neophyte was 
raised up and surrounded by worship- 
ping priests, its voice used to utter words 
of authority. The gay and innocent soul 
which had been led from one plane to 
another by Agmabd's magical powers 
was happy in the experiences of dream- 
consciousness, while its body was thus 
used. Returning to its own place it 
found all changed. No longer was the 
ego of this neophyte the ruler of its 
body. The boy had become a medium, 
made so by witchcraft and sorcery de- 
spite the power of the Lotus Queen. His 
voice had been used without his knowl- 
edge. His body had been worshipped 
as the dwelling and vehicle of the Avidya 
herself while he had been playing with 
his child friends in the dream conscious- 
20 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

ness. It is a most interesting study in 
the simultaneous enactment of events, 
and in the passing of the soul from one 
state of consciousness to another, which 
is here given. Ambition and emulation 
have come to him in the subtile conscious- 
ness, artfully drawn forth in him by 
the black magician who is guiding his 
fate ; he is the successful competitor in 
the games, and then he is lifted up to be 
a leader of the children and placed on a 
throne in their midst to speak to them. 
He is quite forgetful of his body and of 
his responsibility with regard to it, ex- 
cited by the subtile pleasures offered to 
him. Then he " fell asleep " as it is ex- 
pressed. Any one who has had a very 
vivid dream consciousness and returned 
suddenly from it to the physical con- 
sciousness will recognise this description 
as' perfectly correct. The feeling is ex- 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

actly the same as that of falHng asleep 
in the physical consciousness. Followed 
by the voices of the children acclaiming 
him and praising him, he entered into his 
body and found it surrounded by wor- 
shipping priests to whom he had spoken 
words he knew not, and could not have 
understood if he had known them. The 
only child among the crowd was the little 
girl who had led him into the gardens of 
subtile pleasure and returned with him ; 
the creature of Agmabd, a form ani- 
mated by his mind. The manner in 
which this child appears, and her actions, 
is one of the signs of that high priest be- 
ing a very highly advanced Yogin, a 
sorcerer of the first rank. And even 
now, so late in his career, he might have 
cast the darkness from him and become 
by suffering and expiation, a Yogin of 
the first rank. But he is unable to pass 

22 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

beyond the contemplation of the phenom- 
enal universe. He cannot escape from 
the thrall of the dominating characteris- 
tic of his nature, the love of power. He 
is destroyed by his own ambition. He 
has conquered the child-seer who goes 
helplessly with him into the desecrated 
and terrible Holy of Holies, there to be 
the medium between him and his evil 
ruler. He has sought long for this op- 
portunity of direct communication with 
the powerful spirit, determined to secure 
the prizes for which he has worked, the 
gratification of his colossal ambition. 
He desires to be a ruler in the world of 
men, to wear a crown of absolute power. 
Now he is able, by reason of his con- 
quest of Sensa's will, to make his final 
demand of the evil one. And he is im- 
mediately confronted by the supreme or- 
deal of the black magician. Till now he 
23 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION" 

has retained his claim to immortality and 
to the possibility of ultimate redemption. 
But if he is to have his desired prize, he 
must surrender the heritage of man. he 
must sell his birthright. And after a 
brief pause, in which his great intellect 
and his widely developed consciousness, 
survey the bargain, he pronounces " the 
fatal words." Henceforth he is one of 
the Prakritilaya, those Yogins who are 
soulless and without knowledge of the 
Supreme, and who must ultimately be dis- 
integrated, or " resolved into nature " 
because there is no spiritual being within 
which can live on. And the boy, looking 
on him as he makes the dreadful choice, 
sees that his face grows " colder and 
more stony than any carven form." Al- 
ready he experiences an augmentation of 
the peculiar strength of the magician. 
He exhibits the complete perfection of 
24 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

body which is one of the powers of the 
magician, the perfection which accord- 
ing to PatanjaH, the Persian sage, in- 
cludes " beauty, gracefulness, strength, 
and adamantine hardness." The aspect 
as of a carved figure had belonged to him 
in the eyes of the child-seer from the 
first; now it has become confirmed. 
Agmabd has bartered immortality for a 
mortality during which he can be injured 
by none, he can suffer no ill, he will be 
immune from all danger. Such are the 
great and terrible beings who appear as 
rulers of masses of men from time to 
time, who conquer and control by sheer 
force of will, who bear charmed lives, 
against whom revenge and justice are 
alike unavailing. 

In order to give to Agmabd the crown 
which he demands of her the evil spirit 
requires twelve " sworn servants " to do 
25 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

her bidding. For there is work to do, 
and the workers must be secured. The 
dark Queen tells Agmabd that the num- 
ber must be complete. There are ten 
priests in the Temple who are hungry 
with desire for pleasure ; the dark Queen 
promises to satisfy them and in so doing 
to bind them to their service. There is 
Kamen Baka, the second in dignity in 
the Temple ; his heart's desire is known 
to the dark Queen and she is prepared to 
gratify it, without delay. " And who 
shall be the one to complete the num- 
ber? " asks Agmabd. 

" This child," she answers, and by 
those words the fate of Sensa is sealed ; 
that fate which changes him from " a gay 
child, a happy creature of sunshine " into 
a " sad youth " whose " sick heart held 
hidden within it many secrets " of shame 



26 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

and sin and sorrow, and who knew him- 
self for a slave. 

This terrible scene is immediately fol- 
lowed by the summons from the dark 
Queen to Kamen Baka. He enters the 
holy of holies, a blind man, stumbling 
in the dark, seeing nothing, altogether 
dependent on the mediumship of an- 
other, despised by the evil power whom 
he serves. The dark Queen views him 
with contempt because his human per- 
sonality is his limitation. He craves 
personal adoration, personal love given 
to him by those around him, whom he 
feels regard him now with coldness and 
dislike. His demand is easily granted, 
if he pronounces the fatal words which 
belong to this step in the downward path. 
He knows well what they are, and with 
the dreadful glare upon his face of the 
one who desires to have and to take all 
27 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

and give nothing, utters them, though 
with pain. " From henceforward, 
though all men love me, I love no man." 
The dark Queen knows that the 
strength of the young seer has been tried 
to the uttermost, and orders that he shall 
be given rest. Agmabd therefore leaves 
him to himself and tells the gardener to 
take him out among the flowers. Sebona 
is not to take him to the lotus tank 
but among beautiful things which refresh 
his soul and awaken his artistic nature. 
But all true art is fed from the Supreme, 
and in the midst of his delight in beauty, 
of his rejoicing in the glory of life, the 
Lady of the Lotus suddenly comes to him 
and tells him the mystery of the water, 
and shows him how to rise upon it. But 
he is not strong enough to remain with 
her ; he falls away, sinking back into the 
darkness of his slavery and the words 
28 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

she speaks to him become but a memory. 
But still he cherishes them in his heart 
and they ring out dimly from time to 
time in the obscure regions of his dark- 
ened brain, as the years of slavery and 
shame pass by and he grows, in his 
bondage, from childhood to manhood. 
So ends the first Book of the Idyll. The 
battle for this poor human soul still 
rages, the Supreme holds fast to the 
spark of divinity which it has lit, though 
apparently Sensa is lost and is fated to 
be one of the black magicians. 



29 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 



CHAPTER II. 

The first book of the Idyll can be read 
as the story of any neophyte of the 
priesthood in the days of the degeneracy 
and degradation of the great religion of 
Egypt, if he was found to be a natural 
psychic. But the second book contains 
scenes and events which show that Sensa 
regarded as an individual, was not only 
a seer but a soul so highly advanced as 
to be ready to become an adept. He is 
moreover described as a heirophant, one 
who teaches. So that in reading the de- 
tailed description of the ordeals and tests 
through which he passes, it is inevitable 
that the student of occultism shall look 
upon him as a recognised personality, 
one of the great ones of the race. Subba 
30 



OF THE IDVLL OF tHE WHITE LOTUS. 

Rao, who observes * that the Idyll is 
probably a true story, goes on to say, 
" Sensa is represented to be the last great 
heirophant of Egypt. Just as a tree 
leaves its seed to develope into a similar 
tree, even if it should perish completely, 
so does every great religion seem to leave 
its life and energy in one or more great 
adepts destined to preserve its wisdom 
and revive its growth at some future 
time when the cycle of evolution tends 
in the course of its revolution, to bring 
about the desired result. The grand 
old religion of Chemi is destined to re- 
appear on this planet in a higher and 
nobler form when the appointed time 
arrives, and there is nothing unreason- 
able in the supposition that the Sensa of 
our story is probably now a very high 
adept, who is waiting to carry out the 

♦Esoteric Writings, pagre 240. 
31 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

commands of the " Lady of the White 
Lotus." This view, of course, is based 
upon the character of the ordeals de- 
scribed, and upon Sensa's action in 
teaching the people. The grounds for it 
are inherent in the story. But it is not 
possible to identify Sensa with any 
known adept, nor has any such attempt 
been made except as a vague speculation. 
Still, the idea suggested by Subba Rao 
that the ego of Sensa may yet have serv- 
ice to do for humanity gives a keen in- 
terest to the character and adds to the 
profound occultism of the story the ro- 
mance of a personal touch. The Sensa 
of whose trials and fierce struggles we 
read may be amongst us now — visible 
or invisible — embodied or unembodied. 
In the begining of the second book we 
are shown the boy grown to manhood, 
though still a young man. He is valued 
32 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

and cared for in the Temple as such a 
priceless servant would be ; he is amused 
and waited upon by other young priests 
in the intervals of the exhausting forms 
of mediumship to which he is compelled 
to give himself. The waking clairvoy- 
ance in which, in his more innocent days, 
he became conscious of the Lady of the 
Lotus and received her direct inspira- 
tion, has apparently become no longer 
possible for him. He is utterly given 
over to the madness of irresponsible 
mediumship, and knows nothing of the 
dread teachings and instructions uttered 
in his voice to the priestly sorcerers. He 
needs not only rest but refreshment to 
preserve his vitality. The dark goddess 
had said to him in his childhood that he 
must have beauty. She told him that he 
would have been a great artist if he 
had lived for beauty ; but that might not 
33 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

be. He had other work to do. In his 
childhood and youth he was surrounded 
with quantities of flowers and all beau- 
tiful things; as he grew to manhood he 
needed more than this, and was allowed 
to go out of the Temple into the city and 
find pleasures that would restore his 
strength. Throughout the story he is 
shown as being only attracted by beauty, 
or by pleasures of a beautiful kind. He 
had felt no interest in any of the mental 
work or mental studies done in the Tem- 
ple; this would naturally be the case 
with a child-seer, and regarding the 
story as that of one who was passing 
through the initiations of adeptship, it 
is evident that he would have evolved be- 
yond the mental plane. But beauty and 
beautiful pleasures attracted him so 
deeply that this was indeed his undoing. 
By recognising and taking advantage of 
34 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

this part of his nature Agmabd had ob- 
tained control over him at the beginning. 
And now the slave of the high priest was 
sent out to experience all the seductions 
and passions of human life in the city; 
knowing full well that his chains were 
upon him and that when his strength 
was restored he would be recalled. It is 
at this point in the story that a new char- 
acter appears, Malen, a young priest who 
is his companion, whose connection with 
him is full of mystery and meaning. It 
is Malen who suggests to him to go forth 
in search of pleasure, as otherwise he 
will die of exhaustion ; and who assures 
him that Agmabd has already given per- 
mission. Malen leads him forth and 
leaves him in the city with a beautiful 
woman who is evidently a re-appearance 
of the personification of pleasure known 
to him in childhood as his little girl play- 
35 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

mate. The description of his meeting 
with her again is most wonderfully vivid. 
He is amazed to think that he has so long 
neglected her. So Malen leaves him in 
the company of a creature formed by 
Agmabd from one of the serpents which 
are the dark Queen's living robe. When 
the child-seer's innocent eyes had seen 
this garment of Desire upon the evil spirit 
it had filled him with horror. But this 
horror had left him, he had become fa- 
miliar with the aspect of the monstrous 
forms ; and now when by sorcery the evil 
thing was made lovely he dwelled with 
it in delight. Uncounted Time passed 
by; he reckoned it not. But Agmabd 
watched and waited, counting all and 
knowing all. And when the great day 
of the river festival arrived he went into 
the city of pleasure to fetch the seer of 
the Temple, saying simply : " Come ! " 
36 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

And the seer, knowing himself a slave, 
obeyed. The beautiful woman who was 
his companion, vanished ; the sorcerer 
had removed the spell, and when Sensa 
looked for her he saw but a serpent 
which reared its head. Agmabd smiles 
at his fear and assures him that this fav- 
orite of the evil one will not harm the 
chosen servant. But Sensa cannot look 
on the horrible shape undisguised, and 
he hears its hiss of anger as he goes with 
averted eyes. His was the true seer's 
love for true beauty which is beautiful 
to the core. Still pleasure and rest had 
restored his strength, and as the " chosen 
servant " of the dark Queen he follows 
Agmabd, a deep gloom falling on him as 
he enters the Temple. The hour of the 
great ordeal is at hand, and he knows it, 
blinded and besotted though he is. 
. It will be well, before entering upon 
37 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

the consideration of the great ordeal, to 
go over the story from the commence- 
ment once more in the light of its real, 
vital interpretation, that of the Tragedy 
of the Soul. In the other tw^o interpreta- 
tions there are necessarily limitations; 
we are taken into the atmosphere of an- 
cient Egypt, or into the personal life of 
a great adept and must remain there till 
the end of the mysterious narrative. 
Hovvf mysterious is this narrative be- 
gins to be apparent to the student only 
as he understands that the soul-tragedy 
which is so perfectly fitted into the splen- 
did setting is literally the story of Every- 
Soul, of all souls that incarnate on this 
earth, and that it is a drama which is 
continually enacted from all time and to 
all time, in all races and countries and in 
all conditions. As it took place in the 
past, so it is taking place now, and here. 
38 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

To the Soul, liberation is a birthright; 
as it descended into matter so it must 
eventually emerge therefrom, freed and 
purified. We ourselves, and those others 
of the race whom we know and can 
observe, are at one point or at an- 
other of this universal path. In the 
great Sanskrit teachings the same story- 
is told in the Bhagavad Gita, where Ar- 
gund, the Soul of man, is shown fight- 
ing upon the battlefield of his human na- 
ture. The whole of the Gita bears this 
interpretation, while it can also be read 
as the story of a war. So the whole of 
the Idyll bears this interpretation, while 
it can also be read as the story of a 
seer. In both cases the story is most per- 
fect and complete when regarded in the 
greater meaning, although in each case 
the setting in which it is so fitted as to 
be hidden to the ordinary reader, is true 
39 



THE STORY Or SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

to the life of the ancient peoples from 
whom the Song and the Idyll have been 
drawn. The short preface, written in the 
same manner as the prologue, and the 
narrative, states clearly and concisely 
the real meaning of the whole. 

" The ensuing pages contain a story 
which has been told in all ages and among 
every people. It is the Tragedy of the 
Soul. Attracted by Desire, the ruling 
element in the lower nature of man, it 
stoops to sin ; brought to itself by suf- 
fering, it turns for help to the redeem- 
ing spirit within ; and in the final sacri- 
fice achieves its apotheosis and sheds a 
blessing on mankind." 

The key to the meaning of the Idyll 
in this aspect lies in the point that Sensa, 
when he enters the Temple gate, enters 
his physical body. From that moment 
everything which is related takes place 
40 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

within himself ; every person who plays a 
part in the drama is a personification of 
a quality or characteristic of his own 
nature. When he goes into the city for 
pleasure, when he appears among the 
people on the sacred boat, when he speaks 
to the people at the gate, the events 
are still being enacted within himself, 
for in each case it is a part of himself 
which he meets and encounters. The 
beautiful woman in the city is a form 
of his own desire ; the dark goddess on 
the sacred boat is his own evil nature ; 
the Lily Queen is his own divine nature. 
The All-mother — Isis of Egypt — who 
guides the souls of men to their places 
of birth upon earth brings him to the gate 
of the Temple. From the quiet fields of 
the unborn she leads him into the world 
of men, where he is at once roused and 
captivated by the sights and sounds of 
41 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

this special form of life — human life. 
She, the veiled and mystic Mother, comes 
from Eternity into Time, when she 
guides souls hither; and she pauses a 
brief moment ere her return, to gaze 
upon the confusion and listen to the 
babble, which are a part of human evolu- 
tion. 

She has nothing to do with physical 
birth, or with the raising of the Temple 
— when it is ready to receive the soul and 
come into communication with its ego, 
she plays her incessant and unwearying 
part of bringing the soul to the gate and 
stays until it is admitted and the gate 
closed upon it. We therefore see Sensa 
first not as a baby, but as a young boy, 
at the time when the awakening of hu- 
man intelligence usually takes place, and 
that which draws him to enter the gate, 
that which attracts and awakens him is 
42 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

Ambition, personified as the high priest 
Agmabd. 

The personification of various parts of 
man's nature as Agmabd and the other 
priests of the Temple, and as the other 
persons who take part in the story, is nat- 
ural for an Egyptian author and charac- 
teristic of the modes of thought of his 
race. Professor Wiedemann of Bonn 
says, " the body of man throughout life 
was regarded [by the ancient Egyptian] 
as a battlefield where good and evil 
spirits fought for the mastery." 

The soul, entering into its human con- 
sciousness, is first seized upon by ambi- 
tion, and under its direction surveys the 
possibilities of its kingdom. 

It is indicated at once, by the actual 

movement of the story, that the mental 

life of man plays no important part in 

'the evolution of the soul. Sensa, enter- 

43 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

ing the " large and beautiful room " of 
intellectual pursuits, finds that the 
teacher is dim of sight, and the neophytes 
who study with him pay no heed to life 
itself and do not look upon it. He is 
himself the teacher and the taught; and 
that part of him which has worked upon 
the mental plane for ages has but grown 
blind, and the other part which studies 
new mental statements sees no fresh re- 
alities, but gazes only on a written page. 
To him, full of the craving to under- 
stand life itself, this large and beautiful 
room appears bare and unfurnished and 
he passes on through it, by command of 
his own wise intellect, personified in the 
dim-sighted old teacher, to things living 
and things real — the garden of life! He 
can only enter this part of his own na- 
ture by permission of the gardener, who 
has to appear before the gate can be un- 
44 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

locked which admits him to this " world 
of delicate and refreshing glory." The 
instinct which has led him to this gate, 
personified as a novice who has acted as 
his guide from the time of his entrance 
into the temple, is now strong in action, 
and clamours that he shall be admitted. 
Three times does he ring the bell before 
the gardener answers the summons. 
And when at last he slowly comes, mov- 
ing among the flowers in his black robe, 
and agrees to receive the " new pupil " it 
is instinct which unlocks the gate, ushers 
the Soul through it and returning into 
the inner dimness, is seen no more. 

" Come with me," says the gardener, 
" and fear not." 

Who is this " strange man whose 
face would awaken interest in any hu- 
man breast?" 



45 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 



CHAPTER III. 

The story of Sensa, is, as we are told 
by its author, in the preface, the tragedy 
of the soul of man. It takes no heed of 
the bodily life, or the mental life of man. 
Its activity and movement begin with the 
meeting with the gardener when the soul 
awakens and by its own instinct and 
effort reaches out beyond the walls of 
the temple to the mystery of that garden 
which belongs to it. This is not the field 
of open nature, but the temple garden, 
man's heritage, as much as the temple 
itself. But, though it belongs to the 
soul, the gardener must show the way 
among its beauties ; Sensa would be 
helpless without him. Too often does 
46 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

the soul remain imprisoned in its temple, 
ignorant that there is a temple garden, 
for lack of demanding help from the 
gardener. 

This is how Subba Rao speaks of the 
gardener, in Esoteric Writings. 

" Sebona, the gardener is intuition. 
' They cannot make a phantom of me,' 
declares Sebona; and in saying so this 
unsophisticated but honest rustic truly 
reveals his own mystery." 

While Sensa is in the garden the very 
existence of ambition is forgotten by 
him. Agmabd controls him when he is 
within the temple walls, but not when he 
enters into that higher consciousness 
which is represented by the garden. His 
intuition is then his guide, and leads 
him to the sacred lotus tank without de- 
lay and we are at once at the heart of 
•the mystery, in the thick of the story; 
47 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

the battle has begun. His own spiritual 
intelligence is within this garden, and 
by its aid he can perceive the light of the 
Logos, — wisdom. We are shown, practi- 
cally, what is waking clairvoyance, as, 
later on we are shown, practically, what 
is mediumship. By the help of intu- 
ition Sensa raises himself into conscious- 
ness in his spiritual body [the sixth prin- 
ciple of man according to the sevenfold 
constitution of the microcosm derived 
from Brahminical philosophy]. This 
spiritual being in its awakened and en- 
lightened state is able to perceive wis- 
dom, and therefore Sensa, the human 
monad, is able to hold direct communi- 
cation with the Logos. Intuition has 
led him to the home of the Lady of 
the Lotus, passing by all the other 
flowers, drawn by the sound of the 
" delicate-voiced " waters. There he 
48 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

sees the Goddess of Truth, and endeav- 
ours to approach her; but he is not 
strong enough to succeed in this first at- 
tempt, and sinks down through the planes 
of consciousness till with the gardener's 
help he re-enters the walls of the temple. 
He does so by a different gate from that 
by which he had come forth — the way is 
now not that of instinct, but of knowl- 
edge. 

And now it is necessary to consider the 
exquisite and wonderful mystery of the 
Lotus Tank. 

In the astral body, or etheric double of 
man, there exist centres of life, or con- 
sciousness, which correspond to the nerv- 
ous ganglia of the physical body. In 
the ethereal body, as we are taught by 
ancient Hindu mystical writers as well 
as by seers of the present day, exist cen- 
tres which are known by the Sancrit 
49 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

word for them " Chakras " as it is diffi- 
cult to convey the meaning in a single 
word of any modern language. A 
Chakra is a wheel of living fire, and as 
the ego developes its higher form it 
learns to use these psychic powers of its 
etheric double and then the correspond- 
ing powers of its ethereal body. As St. 
Paul put it, having been sown a psyche it 
is raised a quickening spirit. The Chakra 
of the brain is the seventh and highest, 
and according to the Yogins must be- 
come living and conscious before en- 
lightenment can be attained. Its San- 
crit name is " Sahasrava Chakram." 
which means the centre of the thousand- 
petalled lotus — what Sebona calls " the 
home of our Lady of the Lotus." Subba 
Rao in his exposition of the Idyll of the 
White Lotus draws special attention to 
what he declares is the real meaning of 
50 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

the Lotus Tank in the garden. He says 
" Sahasrava Chakram in the brain is 
often spoken of as a Lotus tank in the 
Hindu mystical writings. The ' sweet- 
sounding water ' of this tank is described 
as Amritam or Nectar Padma, the White 
Lotus, is said to have a thousand petals, 
as has the mysterious Sahasravam of the 
Yogis. It is an unopened bud in the 
ordinary mortal, and just as a lotus 
opens its petals and expands in all its 
beauty when the sun rises above the 
horizon and sheds his rays on the flower, 
so does the Sahasravam of the neophyte 
open and expand when the Logos begins 
to pour its light into its centre. When 
fully expanded it becomes the glorious 
seat of the Lady of the Lotus, the sixth 
principle of man ; and sitting on this 
flower the great goddess pours out the 
waters of life and grace for the gratifica- 
51 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

tion and regeneration of the human 
soul." * 

He goes on to say that the followers 
of Hatha Yoga, (which is the endeav- 
our to develope the soul by psycho- 
physical training, such as " posture " and 
the regulation of the breath,) believe 
that in the ecstatic trance known as 
Samadhi the soul can reach this thousand 
petalled flower and " obtain a glimpse of 
the Splendour of the Spiritual Sun." 
But this is a most profound and difficult 
effort, and is not the result of concentra- 
tion, or of trance alone, but is attained 
through sushumna (the dath of the Kab- 
balists). This requires much physical 
and psychic knowledge and effort. The 
path of the Hatha Yoga exits for those 
who are so steeped in materialism that it 
is necessary for them to begin l)y the 

* Page 344, " Esoteric Writingrs." 
52 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

control of the body before attempting to 
control the thinking principle. There are 
many followers of Hatha Yoga in the 
present day, but unfortunately there is 
an indisposition to study profoundly so 
as to obtain the whole teaching at the 
fountain-head. The bits and scraps 
of it which are practised, such as 
" breathing " and " posture ", partially 
understood and separated from the 
whole, are a great danger to those who 
attempt them. " Concentration " with- 
out due understanding and due prepa- 
ration is the greatest danger of all. The 
follower of Hatha Yoga who is deter- 
mined to attain success by that method 
will give twenty years to the conquest of 
his body, before attempting anything 
further. This path is the slowest route 
of all to the goal. Patanjali Yoga com- 
mences with the control of the mind and 
53 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

thinking principle, taking for granted 
diat the body is in subjection. But it is 
fully admitted by ancient writers that 
instantaneous illumination is possible by 
means of intuition. And in Sensa we 
have the soul which, if it has sought to 
reach wisdom by the weary way of 
Hatha Yoga, or the lofty method of 
Patanjali Yoga, has left all this in the 
past. He is capable of absolute faith, he 
is a seeker after absolute truth, and 
therefore by the guidance of his own 
intuition he is able to raise himself in a 
flash of enlightenment, to the sacred 
water tank, which is the awakened organ 
of perception of his spiritual form ; and 
for a moment of supreme joy, to gaze 
upon wisdom. 

And now we come to the point where 
the intense and vital teaching of Light 
on the Path is needed. The uttermost 
54 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

tragedy of the soul, its deep degradation, 
may be spared the neophyte who has 
learned to " kill out ambition." But 
Sensa has not learned this lesson. Am- 
bition is the incentive to effort for the 
ordinary man; it is that which brings 
him even upon the path. For to become 
an occultist is the highest ambition of 
man. And Sensa, who is upon the path, 
who is capable of instantaneous illumi- 
nation, has not learned that he must dom- 
inate the qualities of human nature be- 
fore he can safely enter upon the exer- 
cise of his super-nature. Therefore in- 
stead of controlling ambition he is con- 
trolled by it. Dark-visaged, unnamed 
instincts press upon him; they are the 
creatures and tools of ambition. And 
intuition is of no use to Sensa now. 
Sebona cries out, " you have seen — you 
are a teacher of men " — and hands him 
55 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

over to the instincts of the lower nature 
which place him immediately in the thrall 
of ambition. 

This is a profound lesson for the neo- 
phyte, hard to learn. He does not know 
that until he has learned, he cannot teach. 
A glimpse of wisdom is enough to make 
him think he is a teacher of men ; and 
his intuition leaves him helpless. From 
want of knowledge he fails under this 
first great temptation and becomes the 
tool of his own ambition. There are 
those in all ages who go thus far, and 
no further, who are so completely dom- 
inated by the ambition which seizes upon 
them that never again do they see the 
Lady of the Lotus. And now begins the 
battle — is this to be Sensa's fate? or not. 

Ambition alone was not tempting 
enough to seize and possess the soul 
which had so lately looked upon the Su- 
56 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

preme ; and therefore, the high priest 
does not address Sensa when he comes 
into his presence from the garden, nor 
does he act alone. So soon as he has 
looked upon the strange face of the 
illumined soul he goes for his great ally, 
his brother, as he calls him, Kamerj Baka. 
This high priest is clearly shown by the 
movement of the story to be the person- 
ification of human desire. 

All the lower qualities of the man's 
nature now rise into activity, anxious, and 
determined, to obtain the mastery over 
the higher nature and use its supreme 
gift of perception for their own gratifica- 
tion. In some natures the cold and 
heartless claim of ambition for power 
and supremacy would have sufficed to 
eflfect this ; but this soul whose history 
we are following is highly evolved, it is 
full of love of beauty and of beautiful 
57 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

pleasure, and therefore the priest who 
personifies desire is called to consult 
with Agmabd. Throughout the whole 
struggle Agmabd holds the position of 
ruler among the priests; and Kamen 
Baka, though called by him " my 
brother " is dominated by him. This 
highly evolved soul is ambitions in de- 
sire ; it seeks no common or crude gratifi- 
cation. The lower instincts, personified 
as younger priests, wait upon Sensa, re- 
fresh him, and make him ready, so far 
as is in their power, for the supreme 
effort decided upon. For Kamen Baka 
has advised that the seer should be at 
once taken straight into the presence of 
Desire itself.* From her he draws his 
own inspiration direct, and he regards 
her as that which is life. Agmabd per- 

*Avi(lyd, " thedark sldeof human nature " SubhaRao 
" The first illusion and the last" Ancient Wisdom. 

58 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

mJts himself to be led by this advice, and 
lets the soul rest. From this rest it 
awakens to find itself in darkness, the 
awful darkness of the Temple, and sur- 
rounded by a dense crowd of beings 
animated by desire alone, and eager to 
use his priceless gift for their own ends. 
The whole of his mysterious and in- 
finitely complex nature is demanding life 
and gratification, and this fierce crowd, 
silent in its passion takes the child in 
its grip, and compels him to approach 
the door of the innermost sanctuary 
of his being, the dark and awful 
holy of holies. The circle of priests 
which had surrounded his couch when 
he awoke, closes round him as he 
moves at the command of Agmabd and 
he passes on his way, powerless. For 
not only do these nearest close about 
him, but they are closed upon by 
59 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

Others, and in every direction, so far as 
he can see, the crowd closes in. Is 
not this the true picture of the awaken- 
ing of manhood and womanhood? The 
whole being arises in a storm of agita- 
tion, to demand of brief human life all 
that it has to give ; the little spark of di- 
vinity in its midst is led hither and thither 
by it. And the horizon is scarcely to be 
seen, or the world outside remembered, 
for the turbulence and growing strength 
of all these strange qualities which go to 
the making of a human being. Sensa, 
passing to the inner sanctuary, catches 
a faint glimpse of the outer world 
he has left and it is to him like 
the face of an old friend. Prisoned in 
the microcosm he looks for a fleeting in- 
stant upon the macrocosm before he en- 
ters the deepst darkness of the tomb into 
which he has descended. 
60 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

He is not conquered yet ; he is still the 
unsullied soul, and the first sight of the 
lambent fire of Desire makes him alarmed 
and miserable; and when he sees its ac- 
tual form he is filled with horror. Desire 
commands him to enter the sanctuary 
alone, and he neither can nor will do so. 
Then in anger she reveals her face to 
him and he shrinks with loathing and 
fear, falling once more into unconscious- 
ness. Again the strain had been too 
great for him ; the first time it was the 
attempt to reach the light of the Logos 
which was beyond his strength ; now the 
revulsion from that which lurks in the 
darkness of his own lower nature utterly 
exhausts him. This is a crisis in life 
which every one experiences in himself 
more or less definitely, and which those' 
who have the opportunity of watching 
the change from youth to maturity take 
6i 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

place in others, are familiar with. To 
the one who is passing through it, nothing 
else in the universe is of any importance 
for the time being; the amazement of 
discovering within one's nature the great 
cosmic forces which form the two arms 
of the crucifix, at work and at war is so 
bewildering. That good and evil should 
be encountering each other on the gen- 
eral battlefield of human life, in the 
affairs of men and of nations; is com- 
paratively easy to understand ; but that 
this same warfare should be found 
within one's own small heart is at first 
a great surprise and a great shock. But 
it is so; the fact is there, the microcosm 
reproduces the macroscosm in every de- 
tail, and the great dark Queen of Desire 
who is almost visible in the midst of the 
carnage of a revolution is quite visible 
to the spiritual seer in the dark place of 
62 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

his own inner nature. The vision leaves 
him almost lifeless, helpless and amazed. 
When he recovers from the swoon and 
cries aloud in terror at the recollection 
of what he has seen, a priest who is in 
attendance upon him, a representative of 
his lower mentality, offers him fresh 
water and brings light into his room. 
And then he proceeds to urge upon him 
that he need not fear, that it is only his 
youth which makes him afraid, that he 
has received great honour, that the gaze 
of " our all powerful lady " is enough to 
make a man swoon. This priest is evi- 
dently an emissary of Agmabd's for he 
speaks as one who has been told what to 
say, and recites his lesson well. He bids 
the youth not to rebel against the vision, 
but to appreciate the honour which has 
fallen on him; and above all not to be 
afraid. The arguments brought forward 
63 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

by this priest are those which every soul, 
horror struck at the first sight of evil 
within itself hears from its urgent de- 
sire — nature, and the instincts attend- 
ant upon that nature. " Surely the world 
and all that is in it exists for the pleas- 
ure of the soul ; is it not mere cowardice 
to shrink from that which arises natur- 
ally and which draws and leads all 
men ? " Unable to answer such ques- 
tions the weary and terrified soul looks 
for the help of intuition and asks for 
Sebona. The thought of going into the 
wonderful and beautiful garden of his 
soul rejoices Sensa, and he waits pa- 
tiently for Sebona to be aroused and 
brought to him. Intuition does not 
work in the dark ; it needs the light of 
the sun, it lives and moves in life and 
light and beauty. Its quickest and keen- 
est moment is at the wonderful hour of 
64 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

dawn ; and the weary spirit must wait 
for the first faint ray of light before in- 
tuition is strong enough to come to his 
aid. Then the priest, whose words had 
chilled and disheartened Sensa, summons 
the gardener, and Sebona, — " human ! 
loving," — if uncouth and dark, comes to 
the sad and shadowy room where the 
spirit is brooding. This description of a 
weary and hopeless night vigil, followed 
by a return of courage and hope when 
the dawn comes, will be recognised by 
most people ; it is a part of the common 
lot and general experience of man. Se- 
bona kneels humbly beside the gifted 
child, who demands of him an explana- 
tion of the reason for his being horri- 
fied by the sight of the ghastly face of 
Desire. Sebona does not attempt to an- 
swer this question but leads him forth at 
once among the flowers, and when the 
65 



TflE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

joy of life has seized again upon the child, 
points out to him that in spite of the 
darkness and its horrors, the sun rises 
again and again in all his magnificence. 
Then he leads Sensa, unawares, to the 
lotus tank and asks him if he sees the 
goddess. Sensa is still full of fear, and 
dreads to see the dark and cruel face of 
Desire. But when he looks up the fair 
woman of the Lotus * is once again be- 
fore him and he knows that intuitively 
he has once more reached her home. Se- 
bona urges him to speak to her, and falls 
again upon his knees to watch the great 
event which might possibly now take 
place, of the opening of communication 
between man's higher nature and the Di- 
vine itself. Sensa attempts to approach 
her, again, and with Sebona's help, 
reaches the water tank in his higher con- 

* Vidya, wisdom. 

66 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

sciousness and touches the very garment 
of the goddess where it falls upon the 
surface of the water. He tries to look 
into her face, but light radiates from it 
and he cannot see it because of its glory. 
He is blinded by the splendour of the 
Logos. The Lily Queen addresses him, 
and this gives him courage to ask the 
question which fills his soul and haunts 
him. 

" Mother, what of the darkness f " 
Poor quivering human soul, asking of 
its own highest the question of the ages 
— how to deal with its own lowest. And 
now the Logos itself gives in plain words 
the grand teaching of the ages, taught 
always by every true philosopher and 
mystic. 

" The darkness is not to be feared ; it 
is to be conquered and driven back as 
the soul grows stronger in the light." 
67 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

If the darkness of man's own inner 
nature is not to be feared, then is there 
nothing in the cosmos which can strike 
him with dismay or fill him with alarm. 
For the darkness of " the innermost 
sanctuary of the Temple " is of the same 
substance as that of Hell itself. The 
Lily Queen explains to the seer, in simple 
language, that this innermost sanctuary 
of the Temple is secluded from the light 
of day in order that it may be illumined 
by the light of the spirit. It is not so 
illumined because the " blind priests " 
the qualities of man's nature which are 
drawn from darkness (Tamas) comfort 
themselves with its brood, and resist illu- 
mination. 

These same priests, with their attend- 
ant brood of the evil thoughts of dark- 
ness, were already at work upon their 
task of shutting out the light of the spirit. 
68 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

Sensa was drawn back, in suffering, from 
the high place he had reached; Sebona 
stood rebuked and downcast. Ambition 
and Desire, in the persons of the two high 
priests, placed themselves one on each 
side of the soul, and made it understand 
that its place was between them. Thus 
Sensa re-entered the " gloomy gates " of 
the Temple, leaving the place of spirit- 
ual light and life, guarded and guided by 
these two ruling and dominant passions 
of human nature. He approaches his 
doom ; he enters upon his term of slav- 
ery. There will be resistance — there will 
be veiled and fearful rebellion — there 
will be flashes of illumination — but from 
now until the final great ordeal Sensa is 
guarded as a prisoner by the strong 
qualities of his own lower nature, and 
bidden to serve them as a slave serves. 



69 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 



CHAPTER IV. 

Ambition now assumes absolute control 
over the developing nature, and compels 
intuition to remain silent, not allowing 
it to approach the soul. Sensa is impris- 
oned in the sanctuary of the Temple, 
guarded and watched by the crowd of 
lower instincts which figure as novices 
and priests in the drama. He is prevented 
from going forth into the garden, or from 
meeting the gardener. The composite 
nature, approaching maturity, demands 
success in its undertakings, and is coerced 
by its overwhelming crowd of lower in- 
stincts into measuring success by the 
standard of the world. Wisdom and 
pure spirituality are of no use to one who 
desires to win prizes. Intuition makes a 
70 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

great effort to lead the soul into the 
higher places which belong to it, and 
finding it is not able to come to the lotus 
tank, Sebona plucks a bloom — a flower 
of wisdom — and sends an emissary of 
his own to take it to Sensa in his im- 
prisonment. A strange imprisonment it 
is, for the soul is shut in its temple by 
those who should be its servants, as a 
king might be locked in his palace by his 
people. Sensa receives the flower of wis- 
dom with the utmost delight and cher- 
ishes it " as though it were the breathing 
form of one I loved." His great anxiety 
is to hide it from the alien eyes which 
surround him. Encouraged by the pos- 
session of this precious thing Sensa 
speaks boldly to Agmabd, and tells him 
he cannot endure the dullness and soli- 
tude of his imprisonment in the Temple. 
When relating this Sensa stays to tell the 
71 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

reader that five years later he would not 
have dared to address Agmabd in such a 
manner. Five years later he was the 
slave of ambition, as are so many of the 
great and successful of the world. They 
obey its dictates without hesitation. 
And in a little while Sensa would reach 
and pass through that condition. But as 
yet ambition does not mean all to him. 
He knows there are intensely desirable 
things in the cosmos which are outside 
the scope of human ambition. There- 
fore he speaks boldly to Agmabd, who, 
knowing the latent power of the human 
soul makes no angry reply, but places 
before it a great and terrible temptation, 
which has to be encountered by all as 
they pass along the path. It is early for 
Sensa to meet it ; and fearing lest his 
strength should fail before so great a 
danger, the Lady of the Lotus herself 
72 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

comes to his aid. Agmabd places before 
him a volume bearing the title " the Arts 
and Powers of Magic " and tells him he 
need never again be lonely if he looks 
upon its pages. He does so, and immedi- 
ately temptation, personified, appears 
before him and offers him freedom 
from his prison house. He offers to 
gratify any wish, and " freedom from 
this room " is Sensa's one desire. 
" Come " says the man in black, " fol- 
low me." 

" No ! " replies Sensa, " the high 
priests have imprisoned me — if I am 
found escaping I shall be punished." 

The events now taking place must all 
be considered with the picture of Sensa 
(on this plane) as a young man entering 
upon life, born well in mind. Ambition 
directs that he shall take a high place in 
the world. Is he to do so, or is he to 
73 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

be a seer of spiritual truth disregarded 
and despised by men ? Sensa knows well 
the punishment which would fall on him 
if he left his appointed place; the self- 
contempt, the regret. But the tempter 
does not stay to argue with him ; he 
merely says in a tone of command, 
" Come ! and look not back." This is 
the moment of greatest danger which 
has yet come to him. Had he obeyed the 
tempter implicitly soul-death must have 
been his lot. But his higher nature com- 
pels him to look back and see the conse- 
quences of his attempt to secure free- 
dom, and he beholds his beloved Lady of 
the Lotus, and hears her voice calling 
upon him to return. " Lady, I obey," he 
murmurs, and is saved. Subba Rao, in 
writing of the real nature of soul-death 
and the ultimate fate of a black magician, 
says, " A soul — may place itself en rap- 
74 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

port with a spiritual or elemental exist- 
ence by evoking it, and concentrating its 
attention on it for purposes of black 
magic and Tantric worship. In such a 
case it transfers its individuality to such 
existence and is sucked up into it, as it 
were. In such a case the black magician 
lives in such a being, and as such a being 
he continues till the end of Manwan- 
tara." * Sensa is saved from this awful 
fate by his own sixth principle which 
comes into the very sanctuary in which 
the human soul is imprisoned, and calls 
upon it to awaken from the " accursed 
spell." He does so, and finds himself 
in his prison house, quite alone, deserted 
by his tempter and also by his higher self ; 
compelled to endure his solitude and 
realise himself. He finds his flower of 
wisdom, but it is " languid." He clings to 
* Esoteric Writings, p. 247. 

75 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

it however, and places it within his robe. 
By this faithful clinging to his blossom of 
truth he is strengthened to pass through 
the ordeal which follows, when Agmabd 
leads him blindfold into the inner holy of 
holies and then bids him look upon the 
goddess of Desire. But when he dares 
to gaze into the awful darkness fearing 
to see the face of horror, it is upon the 
glorious vision of the Lady of the Lotus 
that his eyes fall. She soothes and com- 
forts him and bids him believe that he is 
safe, although he has been placed in " the 
very dungeon of vice and falsehood," 
because he himself has entered her atmos- 
phere. And now she utters perhaps the 
most beautiful of all her speeches : " The 
royal flower of Egypt dwells upon the 
sacred waters, which in their purity and 
peace fitly form its eternal resting place. 
I am the spirit of the flower, I am sus- 
76 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

tained upon the waters of truth and my 
life is formed of the breath of the heav- 
ens, which is Love." 

At her bidding the weary soul lies 
down to rest ; and ambition's record of 
this great effort is contained in the one 
word " Vain." 



77 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 



CHAPTER V. 

The soul has escaped this great danger, 
only to be met by more subtle and deeper 
temptations. This is the ordained line of 
progress, terrible in its steady advance 
from one pitfall to another yet deeper. 

Sensa awakes from rest, to find a 
white flower in his hand. Truth has re- 
mained with him ; only a plucked blos- 
som, but still a flower of wisdom. He 
regards it with pleasure and is happy in 
the contemplation of its perfect beauty. 
Upon this mood of content and confi- 
dence enters himself in another form, 
called into being by this very content and 
confidence. 

A little girl, younger than himself and 
" bright as the sunshine " comes gayly 
78 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

into his seclusion and snatches the flower 
from him, shaking the water from its 
leaves. 

Man is tempted and betrayed by his 
own powers, up to the very threshold of 
immortality. 

This little girl is interpreted by Hindu 
students as daiva-prakriti, the higher 
mind of man rejoicing in its perpetual 
youth and power, and its capacity to 
revel in the primordial light. The 
plucked bloom, separated from the root 
of truth, led Sensa into this greatest 
danger of all to the highly evolved soul 
and the highly sensitive mind. Subba 
Rao, in one of his lectures, speaking 
of the " little girl of the Idyll," 
pointed out that daiva-prakiti is com- 
pared to a girl by Hindu writers and 
the " protean power " being superior 
to daiva-prakriti therefore all the souls 
79 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

of human beings are made to be the 
wives of Krishna. The httle girl is the 
human soul upon that plane of glory and 
pleasure with which Sensa had estab- 
lished communication, and was indeed 
none other than Sensa himself in another 
state, using another form and entering 
another consciousness. It is well at this 
point in the story to recall the fact once 
more that it is Egyptian and emanates 
from an Egyptian source. Professor 
Wiedemann says of the Egyptian writ- 
ings— " parts of the soul are treated in 
the tents as entirely independent beings." 
He enumerates them as the " Ka " — 
(which is the best known, and is generally 
understood as the etheric double)— the 
" Osiris '"^i the immortal double)— the 
" Khou " (the " perfect shining one ") — 

* Professor Wiedemann says that " Osiris " is some- 
times used for the Immortal Double, sometimes for 
the Ka, (etheric double or astral form). 
80 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

the " Ba" (which was the human-headed 
bird, depicted by the ancient Egyptians 
as revisiting the mummy of the dead) 
and three other independent souls. These 
last three are often named in the tents, as 
the " Sahu " which wears the mumny 
wrappings, the " Khaibit " which is 
shaped like a fan, and casts a shadow, and 
the " Sekheni " " the reverend form " 
which is the transfigured and quickened 
spiritual being. Of these last three little 
is said in the tents ; they belong to that 
higher nature of man whose functions 
cannot be described in words. This sep- 
tenary conception of separate forms or 
souls, acting on different planes of con- 
sciousness and all attached to the physi- 
cal form or Temple, and all engaged in 
working out the evolution of the ego, 
must be borne In mind when considering 
the story of Sensa. Later in the drama, 
8i 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

when the little girl has fulfilled her task 
of making Sensa a man of the world, the 
young priest Malen appears as again 
Sensa himself in another form, an inner 
personality, a more permanent self. 

The " little girl " is a favoured servant 
of Agmabd's ; she leads Sensa into places 
of inexpressible pleasures and she draws 
him into games where as a matter of 
course he succeeds beyond his fellows, 
and " zvins all the prhes." Ambition 
stimulates the soul in this world of con- 
sciousness, and from the delightful ex- 
periences which befall the soul in that 
place of bliss, it returns to find itself no 
longer a free agent on the plane of hu- 
man life. It has sold itself to ambition 
and desire and must obey them implicitly ; 
the pleasures of the mind are the pay- 
ment — some given already, some yet to 
come, for the " little girl " tells him he 
82 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

is to play often with the children. She 
tells him too that in future he is to dwell 
among earth-fed flowers — no longer is he 
to pluck blooms from the- lily of the 
water-tank. And his first punishment is 
to find himself uttering strange words 
which to him (the soul) have no mean- 
ing, for they appeal only to the lower na- 
ture. His inspiration, poured into him 
from the Queen of Desire, causes him 
to be worshipped, even by the most splen- 
did of the priests. His brain is not 
now " frenzied with the follies of his 
own conceit " to use Agmabd's words, 
but he is obedient to the spell laid on him 
by Desire and his speech gladdens and 
satisfies the throng of priests who listen 
to him. All bow down before him ; the 
novices kneel to offer him food ; His 
room is made sweet and beautiful by 
bushes of earth-fed flowers set about .it, 
83 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

and great bunches of flowers are brought 
to him to satisfy his love of beauty and 
fragrance. Agmabd stands silently 
within the curtains which seclude the 
young seer from the other priests, but 
Sensa is no longer afraid of him. In- 
stead he is glad and proud, for he knows 
he has satisfied the demands of this cold 
ruler. And soon Agmabd leaves him, 
and the " little girl " returns. It is for 
her now to lead the soul in to the great 
ordeal. Agmabd knows that she alone 
can do it, and leaves her to the task, 
while he summons the crowd of priests 
to take part in the ceremonial and to 
prepare the couch covered with roses and 
hedged about with flowers. Here the 
" little girl " induces Sensa to play with 
her at ball, so that he forgets to be 
afraid. And when the sanctuary door 
opens the " little girl " leads him to it 
84 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

and so brings him to the dark goddess, 
Avidya herself. He has now been 
brought to her with such ga.y companion- 
ship that he is not overcome with fear, 
though the child leaves him. He is alone 
with the personification of the dark side 
of human nature. When the goddess 
draws him to her he perceives that her 
robe is a living thing, a drapery of coil- 
ing snakes. And then terror falls on 
the startled soul. The dark goddess 
laughs at his fear and makes her robe 
dim while she places her hand on his 
forehead. Then fear left him forever. 
Again he sees the living robe and be- 
holds the serpents wreathing her body 
and rearing themselves about her head ; 
but he feels no terror. Doubtless he 
knows now that the child who has been 
his merry playmate is one of those terri- 
ble serpents. She vanished as he en- 
85 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

tered the presence of the goddess, going 
to her own place in the queen's robe. 
The little girl is daiva-prakriti — so is the 
beautiful woman of the city — they are 
identical, and both are himself, his own 
mind, and both are a part of the living 
robe of the dark queen. It is the souls 
of men who clothe and veil the presence 
of the queen of darkness and her living 
robe changes into such forms as they 
desire and will to have. 

Sensa is worn out with this severe ex- 
perience and Agmabd, in order to pre- 
vent too great a strain, allows Sebona to 
take him into the garden and to let him 
bathe in fresh water ; but he is not 
to take him to the lotus tank. This 
is because he is so changed that he 
cannot approach the royal flower or 
the sacred water, but seeks his 
freedom from imprisonment, his rest 
86 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

and refreshment, in the astral fluid. 
Nevertheless he sees the goddess of 
truth, who comes to tell him that this 
mystic water is fed from the sacred tank ; 
and that if instead of sinking in it he 
rises and kneels upon it, and by another 
effort rises and stands upon it, he can do 
so safely, it will support him. But while 
making these efforts he must address 
himself to the Logos and demand illumi- 
nation. How plain a teaching this is to 
the many who find sufficient pleasure and 
satisfaction in the experiences of the as- 
tral life, and regard these as true gifts of 
the spirit. But to them the Lady of the 
Lotus will come, sooner or later, and lift 
them up as she lifted Sensa up. She does 
this though she knows that he is about to 
leave her; but she will not permit him to 
forget her utterly, and through the dark 
years that follow, her sweet voice sings 
87 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

dimly in the obscurity of his brain and 
her words remain with him and, as he 
expresses it " cast a strange Hght upon 
my wretched hfe." For Sensa now be- 
comes completely a man of the world, 
the soul within him being entirely dom- 
inated by the two ruling passions of men, 
ambition and desire. In the company of 
his own mind, personified as the beauti- 
ful woman of the city, he drinks deep of 
every kind of beautiful pleasure and is 
utterly happy. And then when Agmabd 
gives the summons to the great ordeal 
which awaits him he sees the beautiful 
woman revert to the shape of a serpent 
of desire and is once more alone. 

Everything connected with initiation 
is purposely veiled and obscurely stated 
in all esoteric writings ; and so it is in 
this mystery-drama. But we know that 
the initiate must gaze into the dark face 
88 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

of Avidya and upon the blinding light of 
the Logos. These ordeals are endured 
by Sensa and clearly described. He suc- 
cumbs to the first ordeal and becomes the 
interpreter and messenger of Avidya 
herself. But having been able to see the 
light of the Logos, he is strong enough 
in the course of the final great trial to 
make a desperate effort for true freedom 
and to obtain it. He is depicted as hav- 
ing become inhuman in his ambition and 
selfish in his desires ; and yet the great 
effort is still possible. But it is only pos- 
sible at the cost of life itself; Sensa dies 
in the struggle. The awful Ten drive 
him forth from his body, which dies, and 
the temple in which it dwelled is de- 
stroyed. It must be remembered that the 
ten are not homeless when the temple is 
destroyed. They belong to the five-fold 
field in which the human soul works out 
89 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

its evolution, and they pass into other 
activities in that field when the soul 
withdraws. Man, in his physical nature 
is mysteriously united with the physical 
universe by means of the five " tattvas " 
which enter into his composition as well 
as into the composition of all that he 
dwells amongst. 

In the light of Egyptian modes of 
thought it seems clear that the body 
of Sensa which dies is the personal 
individuality. This has been so de- 
graded that it has to be sacrificed. 
The author of the story states explicitly 
that it is the story of the soul. Isis is 
the mother of the souls of men, not of 
their bodies. When therefore at the 
final fierce ordeal Sensa's higher nature 
asserts itself and he goes into the holy of 
holies to find the true Queen, the light of 
the Logos, there, he yields up the dese- 
90 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

crated personality. " I am perception," 
he cries, " the imperishable soul " and 
at the command of the Queen-mother 
enters into another of his own forms. 
In the disintegration of his personality- 
he watches the sparks of life disperse. 
Ambition flees forth with a rush to feed 
elsewhere ; and the soul of Malen goes 
to soul-death. Here is a great mystery 
depicted but still inevitably veiled. All 
the names used in the Idyll of the White 
Lotus are words of Hebrew origin, be- 
longing to Aramaic or Arabic idioms and 
convey ideas which help to explain the 
characters. Malen has in it the idea of 
a refuge, or retreat, or a place of recu- 
peration. It was Malen who guided 
Sensa to the city in order that he should 
recover his strength. It appears that he 
was an inner-personality or soul-form 
which should have guided him to a place 
91 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

of true recuperation. Having failed in 
this, and led the human soul astray, 
Malen himself no longer lives. But Sensa 
can raise up his deserted form and enter 
into it and use it. It would seem that 
Malen should have been the " immortal 
double," for by using this form the " I," 
the ego who relates the story, is enabled 
" since then, to live, change form and 
live again ; yet know myself through the 
long ages as they pass." But he does 
not say, or imply, that he re-enters any 
Temple during these long ages, or in- 
habits any physical body. And indeed it 
seems evident that he is never again a 
soul of man, for he clearly states that his 
mother * would not know him in his new 
form. He is suffering a great expi- 
ation, enduring a great loss, as the result 
of the terrible conflict through which he 

*Isis. 
92 



OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 

had passed and in which vital parts of 
his being had been destroyed. But the 
Queen-mother bids him arise in his new 
shape, and he finds he is still strong to 
move among men though he cannot be 
of them. He has survived the ordeal 
and is claimed by the Queen-mother as 
her own ; and she gives him his work 
during the ages, of influencing the hearts 
of the people — and promises that he shall 
live to teach her truth in that " new 
fane that shall arise in the distance of 
time " — the transfigured form, the " per- 
fect shining one" which shall be his 
glorified Temple when he has won full 
liberation. 

It must be remembered that the Egyp- 
tian held that these various entities, souls, 
and forms, which go to the making-up 
of a man, have to be reunited before the 
transfigured man, the " new fane " can 
93 



THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 

be built. The Queen-mother explains 
that Malen's form is pure and un- 
stained, although his soul is lost. He led 
Sensa to the city and left him there, an- 
swering for him to ambition by the sign 
of a jewel worn by desire. Thus he be- 
trayed him; but he did not himself stay 
in the city of pleasure. The ego can use 
this form ; but it appears as though 
the esoteric teaching of this mysterious 
part of the story is that the soul of 
Malen must be recovered, revived, and 
purified, before the " new fane " can be 
built. 



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